How the Soviet Union was broken
counterrevolution
In 1987, when the program of radical reform of the Soviet state entered a decisive stage, Gorbachev defined this program:
Perestroika is a polysemantic, extremely capacious word. But if we choose the key one from its many possible synonyms, the one that most closely expresses its essence, then we can say this: perestroika is a revolution.
Thus, the top leadership of the country and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) saw the task not in gradual reform and modernization, but in change through the destruction of the old system.
It was a “revolution from above,” or more precisely, a counterrevolution., taking into account the fundamental anti-popular changes that took place in the country. The looming crisis of the USSR was resolved in favor of the nomenklatura, socially close groups. Breaking the previous political, socio-economic, national systems, way of life and culture of all citizens and peoples of the Soviet civilization.
At the same time, perestroika was part of a global conflict – the Third World War (the Cold War). In its development and use of the results, foreign political centers played an active and important role. The leaders of the collective West supported the idea of convergence-merger of the two systems, inclusion of the Soviet top in the world elite. They flattered Gorbachev in every possible way, made him a wild advertisement, gave him a bunch of awards.
The completion of perestroika with the liquidation of the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the dissolution of the USSR was seen in the West as a complete victory in the Cold War.
The driving force of perestroika was the union of different social groups: part of the party and state nomenklatura, which sought to resolve the crisis and maintain its position (even at the cost of changing ideology and destroying the USSR), and local and national elites joined it; a significant part of the intelligentsia, infected with cosmopolitanism, Western and liberal ideology (the ideals of freedom and democracy, images of “full shelves”); criminal layers, ethnic organized crime groups associated with the “shadow” economy.
All these social groups got everything they wanted. The shadow elite, the nomenklatura and the national elite received property and divided power, while the intelligentsia received freedom and “full shelves”.
The people experienced economic ruin, zones of inferno and civil war, the beginning of an era of socio-economic and cultural genocide, which caused the extinction of the Russian super-ethnos and most of the indigenous peoples of the Russian civilization.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Gorbachev speaks at a press conference in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, during the Soviet-American summit. Iceland, Reykjavik. 1986
"Revolution in Consciousness"
The first stage of perestroika (before the direct dismantling of the Soviet state) was a “revolution in consciousness”, carried out in accordance with the theory of revolution of Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937, Italian philosopher, founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party and Marxist theorist; considered one of the founders of neo-Marxism).
This period was called glasnost. The social value of the principle of glasnost was first officially stated at the April plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1985. At the XXVII Congress of the CPSU in February 1986, its main goal was seen as drawing people's attention to individual "shortcomings, weaknesses and gaps" in the existing economic system, with the aim of promptly eliminating them.
The word glasnost came into common use in 1987 as a designation for one of the key directions of liberal reforms in the country: "glasnost - perestroika - acceleration". At the same time, the slogans of the moment arose: "More glasnost! More democracy!" The formal beginning of the glasnost policy was laid at the 19th Conference of the CPSU in 1988.
Actually It was a major program to destroy the images, symbols and ideas that held together the cultural core of Soviet society, state and civilization.
This program was carried out with all the force of the state media, which ordinary citizens were accustomed to trusting. With all the authority of scientists, representatives of the creative intelligentsia, whom people trusted. At the same time, that part of the intelligentsia (conservatives, traditionalists-pochvenniks), which appealed to common sense, tried to criticize "glasnost - perestroika", was completely blocked. "Public dialogue" was also blocked, and the "reactionary majority" was not given a word. That is, glasnost was one-sided.
At the same time, for the sake of contrast, carefully selected, abridged and edited speeches were occasionally allowed, statements like the famous “letter from Nina Andreeva”: “I cannot compromise my principles” – a letter from Nina Andreeva, a teacher at the Leningrad Technological Institute, published in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” on March 13, 1988.
Not only Soviet symbols and heroes were subjected to denigration, but also pre-revolutionary ones. Up to Alexander Nevsky. In the style of the 20s, when Russian story.
To discredit the USSR, disasters (Chernobyl, the Admiral Nakhimov ship, etc.), various incidents (Rust's plane landing in Moscow) and bloodshed (Tbilisi, 1988, the pogrom in Baku, 1990, etc.) were intensively used. Plus interethnic clashes, which were organized, provoked, and then blamed on the center, the party, the army and the Russian "colonizers".
The widespread discussion of the infection of 20 children with AIDS in a hospital in the city of Elista in Kalmykia caused a great psychological shock. This case is indicative in that in the world and in the West there have been catastrophes, accidents, and incidents that were worse.
For example, at the same time in Paris they discovered that the National Blood Transfusion Service in France, buying up cheap blood from homeless people and drug addicts, infected 4 thousand people with AIDS. But the Soviet media kept silent about it. That is, they flaunted their own problems, and hushed up others'.
The so-called environmental movement carried out purely informational and ideological warfare tasks (as it does now). The media literally drove people to psychosis with their horror stories about the “nitrate boom,” the construction of nuclear power plants, etc. Soviet nuclear power plants were the safest and most advanced in the world, but Russia’s enemies were able to cover up a number of advanced, breakthrough developments in the peaceful nuclear energy sector.
A special type of information warfare were biased "public opinion polls". For example, the all-Union poll of 1989 "opinions on the level of nutrition". Thus, milk and dairy products in the USSR were consumed 358 kg per person per year. For comparison, in the "showcase of capitalism" of the USA - 263 kg per person per year. But in the polls 44% considered that they did not consume enough. In Armenia, there were 62% of such people, with consumption of 480 kg (noticeably higher than the all-Union level). In capitalist Spain at that time, they consumed 180 kg per person per year.
“Public opinion” was formed by the ideologists of perestroika and the media.
Eurocentrism
The informational and ideological core of perestroika was cosmopolitanism, Westernism, and Eurocentrism. The idea and worldview that European culture and history are central and superior to others. That Europe and Western civilization as a whole are the source of progress, development and universal values.
They say that Europe and the West are going along the "correct" high road. But Russia under the "Mongol" tsars and especially in the Soviet period (more precisely, under Stalin and Brezhnev) deviated from this path and fell far behind.
From this was deduced the concept of the need to return to the “correct” path, “to civilization,” “to the developed world,” and orientation toward “universal human values”The main obstacle on this path was the Soviet state, the Communist Party, socialism, and the main task was the liquidation of the “wrong” state.
As a result, In the USSR, almost all state institutions were denigrated and discredited, including the Academy of Sciences and the school. They threw mud at the state security forces, the army and the KGB with particular hatred.
Reforms of the state system
In order to increase chaos and facilitate the collapse of the USSR, in 1988, through the so-called constitutional reform, the structure of the supreme authorities and the electoral system were changed. A new supreme legislative body was established - the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, which elected from its members the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Chairman and the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Formally, the USSR Constitution with the amendments of 1988 and the new electoral law were less democratic than the Constitutions of 1936 and 1977. The elections of deputies were not entirely equal and direct. A third of the composition was elected in "public organizations", and by their delegates. In the districts, there were 230 thousand voters per mandate, and in "public organizations" - 21,6 voters (more than 10 thousand times less!).
The principle of "one person - one vote" was not observed during the elections. There were almost no workers or peasants among the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, mainly administrative workers, scientists and journalists (intelligentsia).
In 1990, instead of the collegial system of supreme power that was usual for the Soviet state, the post of the President of the USSR was established with greater powers. The President of the USSR headed the Federation Council, which included the Vice President and the Presidents of the Republics. The President of the USSR was to be elected by direct elections, but for the first time he was elected by people's deputies, since in 1990 there was no hope that Gorbachev would win the presidential elections.
The Council of Ministers of the USSR was abolished and a new type of government was created – the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR under the President with a lower status and narrower functions.
The 1990 Law "On the General Principles of Local Self-Government and Local Economy in the USSR" introduced the concept of "communal property" and determined that the economic basis of local councils consists of natural resources (land, water, forests, etc.) and property that serves as a source of income (enterprises and other objects). Councils entered into economic relations with them on a tax and contractual basis, received the right to set tax rates on profits, introduce local duties, taxes, fees, rent, etc.
This was an important step in the division of public property, the decentralization of power and the strengthening of local authorities.
To be continued ...
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